Kwekwe council fail to run brewery- mayor admits

Kwekwe City Council mayor Matenda Madzoke  has admitted that the local authority has failed to efficiently  run its Simba Brewery.
Madzoke said the brewery is now up for leasing.
"As the local authority we have failed to run the brewery and so we have come to an agreement that we lease it out to interested private players," Madzoke is quoted saying by The Source.
"Workers have been requesting for salary increment and us as a local authority, due to limited resources we have been failing to come into agreement with our employees so if we lease the brewery to private partners they will be able to deal with the issues," he said.
According to reports, the midlands council has toyed with the idea of selling off the brewery after it accumulated debts of $1,3 million as at September last year.
It owes several creditors, including FBC Bank, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and National Social Security Authority.
The brewery, which started operations in 1996, was previously shut down in 2008, before it was revived in 2010 under a management deal with Limsol Trading, which has since expired.
Several local authorities have privatized their breweries.